Cobie Smulders

"I’ve read a lot of scripts, and I’m really luck to be able to play a woman who’s funny and can be charming and has a mischievous side to her as well. I’m really lucky." - Cobie Smulders on her role on How I Met Your Mother

You can tell everyone that you tune into How I Met Your Mother for Neil Patrick Harris’s genius comedic timing, but we know it’s really to spend a half hour (or at least 22 minutes) with Cobie Smulders. The Canadian actress and former model who plays Robin on the hit show had the producers at “eh” -- so much so that they decided to make her character Canadian.

SEX APPEAL

As a former model with a background in sports, Cobie Smulders has an attractive combination of natural beauty and toned physique. While her role on How I Met Your Mother obviously doesn't push her sexiness to the max, she's already turned heads in Hollywood. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly creator Joss Whedon wanted to cast her in the film version of Wonder Woman until he left the project.

Cobie Smulders appreciates her fame, but she values her time away from the camera and doesn't live for tabloid exposure. Smulders is married to fellow actor (and How I Met Your Mother guest star) Taran Killam, with whom she has a daughter. She speaks proudly of her man, but prefers to keep the intimate details of their relationship -- like Killam's romantic marriage proposal -- a secret.

SUCCESS

Cobie Smulders once had her heart set on becoming a marine biologist (how Vancouver of her), but her interest in acting eventually guided her to a comfortable niche as a television actress. Guest spots on Jeremiah, Special Unit 2 and Tru Calling led to her own short-lived series, Veritas: The Quest and a stint on The L Word. For the last eight seasons, TV viewers have welcomed her into their homes on How I Met Your Mother, where she trades barbs with Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, and Josh Radnor.

Not wholly restricted to the small screen, Cobie Smulders has also appeared in films like Walking Tall with The Rock and Johnny Knoxville, The Long Weekend starring Chris Klein, the 2009 Broken Lizard comedy The Slammin' Salmon featuring Michael Clark Duncan and she also starred as Maria Hill in Joss Whedon's comic-book blockbuster The Avengers. A role she reprised in the 2013 premiere of the Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series and will continue to play in the upcoming films Captain America: Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Talk about a lucrative role. Television and movie awards have eluded her thus far, but she certainly has a stable foundation to build on.

Cobie Smulders Biography

Jacoba Fransisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders was born on April 3rd, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Initially, Cobie Smulders' career ambitions were in medicine and marine biology, but acting became one of her favorite pastimes once she started appearing in school productions at Lord Byng Secondary School. She also kept herself busy in sports by regularly playing tennis and soccer.

Blessed with good looks, Cobie Smulders also drew interest from the modeling community and, after landing a professional contract overseas, her work took her to destinations like Greece, Japan, Italy, Africa and Germany. Despite her busy schedule, Smulders still completed high school on time and with an honors distinction in 2000. More keen to act rather than model, Smulders opted to try her hand as an actress.

cobie smulders stars in veritas: the quest and the l word

After high school, Cobie Smulders began acting professionally in a number of television series that were filmed in her hometown. Her first two TV appearances came in 2002 on a pair of sci-fi programs: UPN's Special Unit 2 and the Luke Perry-led Jeremiah. Just a year later, Smulders guest-starred on Tru Calling and landed a lead role as Juliet Droil on the adventure series, Veritas: The Quest. Unfortunately, the series was canceled after only 13 episodes.

Cobie Smulders pressed on, getting valuable film exposure with a bit part in Walking Tall (starring The Rock) and a supporting role in the Canadian-made Ill Fated. In 2005, after having guest-starred on Smallville and Andromeda, Smulders enjoyed a recurring role in The L Word as Leigh Ostin, a photographer who attracts Jennifer Beals.

cobie smulders stars on how i met your mother and the slammin' salmon

In the fall of 2005, Cobie Smulders found her breakout role playing Robin Scherbatzky, a former Canadian teen singer who hooks up with Ted (Josh Radnor) on the CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. Joining a cast that already included Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel, Smulders attracted a strong fan following of her own, as viewers were kept in suspense as to whether Robin was the "mother" of the title.

While enjoying the benefits of a long-running television series, Cobie Smulders still finds time to pursue other acting projects on the side. In 2005, she starred in The Long Weekend, which was top-lined by Chris Klein. In 2009, she starred as Tara in The Slammin' Salmon, a restaurant-set comedy starring Michael Clarke Duncan, produced by the Broken Lizard comedy group (Beer Fest and Super Troopers).

In 2012 Cobie made her blockbuster debut starring as Maria Hill in Joss Whedon's The Avengers which set the record for biggest opening weekend in North America. The role will continue to fuel her motion picture success as she dons that skintight unitard for Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). These films are only the first third of a nine-film commitment Cobie has made to play Maria Hill, not to mention the new series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. All we can say is we hope that suit is as easy to wear as it is to ogle.